Falling
by separatehearts
Summary: Pretend BTTF didn't happen.
1. Chapter 1

"I have to say, Keel, that really was your best show ever," my best friend, Phil, told me as we left the video broadcast lab on Monday morning. He took my arm in his and we walked down the hall to our lockers together.

"Well, I couldn't have done it without you, Mr. Cameraman," I reminded him with a smile. Usually I'm my own harshest critic when it comes to my news broadcasts, but I had to admit—today's expose on the underwater basket weaving club meeting at the beach instead of the pool like they were supposed to had been pretty good.

"Maybe, but the idea of disguising yourself as a beached whale was all yours," Phil told me. We'd arrived at our lockers and both spun the combination locks at the same time.

"And that's what I like best about you, Phil," I said, taking my books out one by one and balancing them on my arm. Woah, these were heavy. "You always go along with my crazy ideas."

Phil glanced over at me, a puzzled look on his face. "When do I go along with your crazy ideas?" he asked.

I thought about it for a minute. "Well, there was the time when—" I began, but I stopped myself. "No, that was your idea. But what about that time when I—no, no… that was you, too." I shrugged, slamming my locker door shut. "I guess you're right."

Phil closed his locker, too, and immediately noticed me struggling under the weigh of all my textbooks. "Hey, do you want some help with those?" I shook my head, but he had already taken most of my books from me and added them to his own pile. "So what are you doing this weekend?"

"Nothing yet," I replied. "Do you wanna hang out?"

"Yeah. How does a movie sound?"

"Great." We'd arrived at my classroom door and stood outside it as we finished our conversation. "So I guess Friday night?"

"Friday night," Phil confirmed, giving me back my books one at a time. "See ya at lunch?"

"See ya." I turned to go to my class, but at the last minute I kissed him on the cheek before I could talk myself out of it. "Thanks for carrying my books."

"No problem." Phil smiled at me before walking down the hall, leaving me to my English class.

Twenty minutes later, my teacher was giving notes on Shakespeare, and I could barely focus. I was too busy replaying the whole scene between Phil and me earlier in my head, over and over again, analyzing every detail to death. Should I have kissed him on the cheek like that? I'd done it before, and it'd never been a problem. Did anybody see? Am I not the sort of girl who can pull that kind of thing off?

My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the classroom door creaking open. A boy I'd never seen before walked in. He was cute, but of course, he couldn't hold a candle to Phil. He was tall, with blonde hair, blue eyes, and a nice smile.

"Oh, you must be Trent Parker," my teacher said, putting her boring lesson on hold. "Class, this is Trent Parker. He's new here. Please make him feel welcome." She scanned the rows of desks to find an empty one. "You can take a seat behind Miss Teslow." She pointed at me.

"Lookin' good today," the new boy said in a low voice as he passed my desk.

I rolled my eyes and didn't bother glancing back at him.

Just what this school needed. Another Owen.

"Hey, Keel!" Phil was waiting for me outside my English class when the bell rang so we could walk home together. "Ready to go?"

"Yep," I replied readily. I was always ready for alone time with my favorite person in the entire world. "I just have to drop a few things off at my locker first."

Phil and I chatted easily about our days while I put everything I didn't need in my locker and got out what I did. Just as we were about to leave, I heard someone calling my name.

"Keely!"

I spun around and looked behind me to see the same cute but obnoxious boy that had been in my English class walking toward me. When he reached where Phil and I were standing, he stopped.

"Hey, um, so, you're Keely, right?" he asked, catching his breath. "I'm Trent, from your English class. Our teacher told me you could help catch me up? You know, since my English class was behind yours at my old school."

"She did?" I asked. What on earth was that woman thinking? I could barely manage a B in that class. How did she expect me to help somebody else?

"Yeah," Trent replied. "So what do you say? Can you tutor me?"

I quickly glanced over at Phil, hoping to find a trace of advice in his expression, but it was blank. What was I supposed to say? I didn't WANT to tutor him, but I kind of felt like I was obligated to.

"Um… I guess so," I finally said. "Meet me in the library after school tomorrow?"

"Yeah." Trent agreed. "Thanks, Keel. I owe you one." Then he walked away.

Once he was gone, I heard Phil mumble, "Keel."

I looked over at him. "What?"

"He called you Keel," he said, sounding really snippy. "He barely even knows you and he calls you Keel?"

"Phil, YOU call me Keel," I reminded him, feeling very confused. What had gotten into him?

"Yeah, but that's different. I've known you for longer than twenty seconds." He scowled.

I smiled. It sounded like Phil seemed worried—maybe that Trent might take his place? I could be reading too much into this, but could it have been jealousy I heard in his voice?

Just in case I was right, I put my hand on Phil's shoulder. "Don't worry, Phil. You have full Keel rights," I assured him with a light laugh. "Now come on. I need you to help me study for my math test tomorrow."

Phil lit up like a Christmas tree. He loves math, especially when he gets to explain it to people who have no idea what they're doing. People like me. He put his arm around my shoulders and my heart skipped a beat at our closeness as we walked out of school. 


	2. Chapter 2

"So if you just take it line by line, Shakespeare isn't really that hard to understand."

It was Thursday afternoon, and I sat across from Trent Parker at a table in our school library, our English textbooks opened up in front of us. We'd been studying together for almost two hours now, and it felt like no time had passed at all. My first impression of Trent had been all wrong, I'd discovered that afternoon. He was really… funny. Charming, maybe. The fact that he wasn't Phil was undeniable, but he came pretty close.

"Yeah. I see that now," Trent replied. He glanced up from his book and caught my eye. He smiled, and I looked away, feeling a little nervous, even though I didn't know why. "I'd be failing English already without you, Keel."

"Keely," I corrected him automatically, thinking of the conversation Phil and I had the day before. "I mean, um, my name. It's Keely."

"I know," Trent said. "I was just calling you Keel. You know, like a nickname."

I didn't answer. I didn't really have anything to say to that. He was right. I must have sounded all anal, being all… anti-nickname.

"So, what are you doing tomorrow night?" Trent asked, breaking the awkward silence that had fallen between us.

"You want me to tutor you on a Friday night?" That was surprising. This kid must be really dedicated to his schoolwork or something. Not even Phil, the biggest fan of public education I know, would want to study on a Friday night.

"No." Trent laughed. "I like you, Keely. I thought maybe you and I could, I don't know, go on a date or something?"

"A-a date?" I stammered. He was asking ME out on a date? This almost never happened to me. I didn't know what was supposed to happen next. "You… you want ME to go on a date with YOU."

Trent nodded. "Yeah. I thought we had a good thing going here, but if you don't think so, we could pretend like—"

"No," I heard myself say, like I was watching a movie of this moment instead of actually living it. "I mean, sure, Trent. I'd love to go out with you."

For some reason, after I spoke those words, Phil's face popped into my mind. I tried really hard to push it out of my head, but it seemed impossible.

"Awesome!" Trent smiled at me as he gathered up his stuff. I stood, too, closing my book and slinging my purse over my shoulder. "We can go get something to eat, or whatever you want to do. Pick you up at seven?"

So many thoughts were swirling around my head all at once that all I could do was nod. Dazed, I watched him leave. Then, trying to get my thoughts together, I walked out of the library, too.

"Keel."

Phil was waiting for me outside of the library. He walked beside me down the hall. "So how did tutoring with Trent go?" he asked, sounding kind of anxious. I couldn't imagine why, though.

"It went really good," I replied. It all started to hit me at once what had just happened. I, Keely Teslow, had a date with a very cute boy with a great personality the next night. "Trent and I ended up getting along a lot better than I thought we would."

"Well, if you have to tutor someone, it's easier if you can get along with each other," Phil replied. "So while you were in there I looked up movie times on my Wizrd. It just so happens that Samurai Love You Too is opening tomorrow night, and since I know how much you love those stupid movies, I'd be willing to make a personal sacrifice."

Something else started to hit me too—and this time it was how horrible of a friend I was.

"Oh, Phil," I said, my heart sinking into my stomach. "Trent asked me out for tomorrow night and I said yes. I totally forgot about our plans. Stay right here. I've gotta go find him and tell him I can't—"

"He asked you out?" Phil interrupted, staring at me with—what was that? Usually he was so easy to read. Of course he was, he was my best friend. But lately it had become harder and harder to tell what he was thinking.

"Well…yes," I replied, feeling about two inches tall. "But you asked me to hang out first, so I'm just gonna go tell Trent that I have to—"

"No, Keely, wait," Phil interrupted me a second time. "You want to go on this date. I know you do. Am I right?"

I nodded. I didn't want to, though. But I couldn't lie to Phil.

"So go on that date. Don't worry about me."

"No, Phil. I told you I'd go to the movies with you tomorrow night, and that's what I'm gonna do," I said firmly. I had always promised myself that I would never be the kind of girl who ditched her friends for a boy. Even if her friend was a boy, too.

"Don't worry about me," Phil repeated. "I'm happy when you're happy, and I can tell that going on this date is gonna make you happy. So go."

He was so amazing. I would much rather it be Phil that I was going on this date with, but I knew that could never happen. Phil didn't see me that way, and chances are he probably never would. Besides, Trent seemed like the next best thing. Life is short. You have to love the one who asks you out and not the one you wish would ask you out. Or something like that.

"Thanks, Phil," I said, leaning toward him to give him a hug. "You're a great friend. And Saturday night, I promise, I'm all yours."

"Sounds like a plan," Phil replied, smiling.

Something was wrong with his smile. It was different than usual. But I didn't want to think about that. Not now. So I just ignored the nagging feeling that Phil wasn't being completely honest about something and grabbed his arm, pulling him out of school with me.

I smiled at my own reflection in the bathroom mirror. The hour and a half I'd spent picking out my clothes and doing my hair and make-up had been worth it. Sure, I'd had to call Via about five times for outfit advice and reassurance that going on this date with Trent was the right thing to do, but now I was back to my usual confident Keely self.

Sort of.

The second I heard the doorbell ring, I dashed down the stairs, practically flying by my mother who was watching TV on the living room couch. I had to get out of there as quickly as possible to avoid her embarrassing me out of a date.

"See ya later, Mom! I'll be back at ten!" I called. Earlier in the day, she'd had a little talk with me about curfews. Normally, when I was with Phil or Via, I could come home whenever I was ready as long as I called her at some point. But since Mom didn't know Trent—and for that matter, neither did I, really—it was home by ten or nothing.

"Bye, Honey! Have a nice time!" Mom called back as I slipped out the front door, locking it behind me.

Trent was standing on my front porch, looking at me expectantly. "Embarrassing parent syndrome?" he asked with a laugh.

I smiled nervously. "Yeah. Something like that."

"So I thought we could go get something to eat?" Trent suggested. "There's this really good restaurant I go to all the time over in Handsometown."

"Handsometown?" Well, this would be one fancy pants date if we were going all the way to Handsometown—especially if we were going to East Handsometown. "Isn't that a little far?"

"My dad let me borrow his car," Trent explained, gesturing to a black SUV parked in our driveway. "So are you ready to go?"

"Um, yeah." I followed him to the car and hopped up into the passenger's seat.

The first few minutes of our car ride were all awkward silence. I couldn't think of a single thing to say that wouldn't embarrass me. And I guess he was waiting for me to talk or something. If he was, it was pointless, because I wasn't planning on saying anything anytime soon.

Finally, Trent spoke. "So. You seem pretty close with that Phil kid."

I smiled at the mention of my best friend. "Yeah. I am," I replied. "He's an awesome guy."

"And that's why you're here on this date with me?" Trent stared straight at the road.

Okay. He did have a point. But still…

"No. We're just friends," I told him, hoping he wouldn't pick up on the regret in my voice. "Best friends."

"Well, I hope he likes me, then," Trent said, smiling. He still looked straight again. "Because I plan on spending a lot of time with you."

Didn't he move fast? We'd barely even been on a date for ten minutes and already he was planning our relationship? What if I didn't want to spend a lot of time with him? What if tonight went horribly wrong and neither of us ever wanted to see each other again?

I didn't answer. I followed Trent's lead and stared straight ahead at the road until we arrived at the restaurant.

"Well, Keely, I had a great time."

Trent and I stood on my front porch at 9:30 that night, after a very mediocre dinner at that so called "really good" place in Handsometown. I felt like I had entirely wasted a Friday night. All through dinner, all Trent could talk about was himself and his old school and all I could think about was Phil and how I'd much rather be at the movies with him.

"Yeah," I lied, just to be polite. He HAD paid $16 for a lobster dinner that he had ordered for me that I didn't eat. "Me, too."

"So I'll see you at school on Monday?"

"Yeah. See you at school." I forced a smile for his sake.

"Great." Then, before I could stop him, Trent leaned down and kissed me. It was the most disgusting four seconds of my life. I kept my lips pressed shut and my eyes open the whole time.

As soon as Trent pulled away, I opened my front door and went inside as fast as I could. I felt tears pricking the corners of my eyes. I couldn't believe that Trent Parker, a boy I barely knew and barely liked, had been my first kiss. I'd spent the past sixteen years of my life dreaming and imagining that my first kiss would be as magical and wonderful and unforgettable as the night it would have followed.

Instead, I'd gotten kissed unwillingly and unromantically after spending a night in a sticky leather booth sitting under a fluorescent light, filling up on dinner rolls. And all I wanted was to forget it ever happened.

"Nugget, is that you?" It was my mom. She sounded like she was in the kitchen. "Did you have a good time?"

"Uh huh," I answered, trying not to sound like anything was wrong. Then I ran up to my room, taking the stairs two at a time.

Once I was there, I closed the door behind me and sat down on my bed, pulling my cell phone out of my purse. I dialed Phil's number.

He answered on the first ring. "Hey, Keel."

His voice was so warm and so familiar and just from how he sounded I could tell that he cared about me. I burst into tears. That whole night, I'd been pretending. Pretending to have fun. Pretending to like Trent. Pretending I was okay so my mom wouldn't ask questions. And now I knew that all the pretending could stop.

"Keely, what's wrong?" His warm, familiar voice changed to one that sounded serious and worried. His concern only made me cry harder. "What happened? Are you okay?"

"I had a horrible time," I sobbed into the phone. "It was the worst date in the history of the world. The whole thing was a disaster. I shouldn't have ditched you. I guess I got what I deserved for being such an awful friend."

"First of all, you didn't ditch me," Phil said. "And second of all, you have never been an awful friend and you certainly aren't being one now. Tell me what happened. Maybe I can help."

He was being so great about this. I'd spent all day long building up Trent in my mind—how cute he was, what a great personality he had. But I knew that whatever inflated version of Phil I could imagine in my head could never even come close to how incredible he really was.

"Well, we went to this restaurant in Handsometown," I began.

"Handsometown?" Phil interrupted. "Isn't that a little far?"

"That's what I said!" I exclaimed. "His dad let him borrow his car. Can you believe that? He drives! Anyway, we go to this restaurant, and he decides that he wants to be all cool and order for me, since he knows me so well and all. And guess what he orders me! Lobster!"

"But you hate lobster!" Phil cried. "Obviously, he didn't know about your whole Fish Are Friends, Not Food embargo after seeing Finding Nemo. You don't eat seafood."

"I know!" I was feeling better already. Sometimes, even after the worst day of your life, all you need is one conversation with the person who knows you better than everybody else and all the bad stuff just fades away. "But that's not even the worst part. The worst part was when we were saying good night. He kissed me, Phil. My first kiss and it was with a total loser."

"Aww, Keel. I'm so sorry." He really did sound sorry. "If it helps, and it probably won't, my first kiss wasn't what I thought it would be, either."

"It wasn't?" I asked, sniffling. "What happened? Was it with some 2121 girl?"

"Nope. Actually, it was in this century," Phil replied. "I never told you this, but when you were going out with Tanner, I morphed myself into him so I could see if he really was cheating on you and the way I found out was by his girlfriend kissing me."

"Oh." This was new information.

"But you know what?" Phil continued. "What's great about life is that there are always second chances. And I don't think that either of those kisses really counted."

"They didn't?"

"No," Phil assured me. "And I promise that when your real first kiss happens, it's going to be incredible. You will want it to count. I'm guaranteeing it."

"Thanks, Phil." I had to smile. Nobody else ever could have taken this disaster of a night and make it seem so much less terrible than I thought it had been. "Now all I have to worry about is Monday when Trent wants to be all boyfriendy with me."

"Well, maybe we can prevent that from happening," Phil said. "But only if you're willing to go along with this plan I have."

"I'll do anything," I promised. "Whatever it is, I'm in." 


	3. Chapter 3

I clutched Phil's hand nervously as we walked into school together on Monday morning. "Phil, are you sure this is such a good idea?" I whispered, leaning toward him.

"Of course I'm sure," Phil whispered back. "We're always so close anyway that nobody will even notice we're pretending to be together except for Trent. And he's the only person we need to notice."

"Okay…" I replied, still feeling a little unsure of our plan.

We arrived at our lockers, releasing each other's hands so we could get our stuff out. It was looking like I'd be in the clear—for now, at least—when I saw Trent walking toward me down the hall.

I glanced over at Phil. "He's coming."

"Remember what I told you," Phil said to me. "Just act natural. Casual."

"Natural. Casual. Got it!" I nodded and took a deep breath.

"Hey, Keely," Trent said when he made it to our lockers. "I was going to call you yesterday, but I figured you were busy."

"Yeah, I was," I replied, thankful that he didn't call. That would have been one awkward phone conversation. "I was at Phil's all day." Not a lie. I HAD been at Phil's all day—we needed a lot of time to perfect our plan.

"Oh. Phil. Right." Trent nodded at my best friend standing behind me.

Phil nodded back. I gave him a VERY urgent stare for help, but all he did was shrug at me. Some help he was turning out to be.

"So, Keely, can I walk you to class?" Trent asked, holding his hand out to me.

"Actually, I was planning on walking Keely to class this morning," Phil stepped in. I let out a long sigh of relief.

Trent laughed. "No offense, man, but I think Keely would rather her boyfriend walk her to class."

Woah. Even if I DID like him—when did he become my boyfriend? There was a major overstepping of boundaries going on here.

"Yes. I'm sure Keely WOULD rather her boyfriend walk her to class." Phil threw an arm around my waist casually—a little too casually. But I had to admit, he was doing a good job so far.

I shrugged at Trent with a weak smile. "I told you we were close," I offered.

"Come on, Keely," Phil said, slamming my locker door shut for me and taking my hand. "We don't want to be late for class."

And down the hall we walked, leaving a dumbfounded Trent Parker standing alone in the middle of the hallway looking after us.

Once we were out of Trent's sight, I threw my arms around Phil. "You were great!" I exclaimed. "Really awesome. You even had me believing we were an item there for a second."

Phil smiled. "Well, it looks like Trent won't be bothering you for awhile now," he told me proudly. "How does it feel?"

"It feels GREAT!" I answered. "Thanks, Phil. You really are the best friend a girl could ask for. And you know what? Being your girlfriend for the past ten minutes has actually been kind of fun."

"Yeah, it was fun, wasn't it?" Phil took a deep breath. "Listen, Keel… I know this is gonna sound crazy, but… do you think you wanna try that again? Like, on a real date? I promise not to order lobster."

How long had I waited to hear him ask me that particular question? I grinned at him. "Of course! Phil, I would love that!"

Phil grinned back. "Great. So how does Friday sound?" he asked.

"Perfect," I replied. I kissed him quickly on the cheek. "See you at lunch, sweetie pie."

Then I disappeared into my classroom and he disappeared into his. 


	4. Chapter 4

On Friday afternoon, I was perched on my bathroom counter, Via bent over me, applying my make-up. I had enlisted her eyeliner expertise to help me get ready for my date with Phil. Already I was noticing a big difference between this Friday night's date and the one the Friday night before it. For one, there were butterflies in my stomach again—but this time, they were excited ones instead of nervous ones. And I wasn't constantly praying that this night would turn out perfectly—I already knew for sure that it would.

"You look great, Keely. Phil isn't going to know what hit him," Via assured me, adding the finishing touches to my eyes. "And I'll still be here when you get back and I am going to want to know exactly everything that happens."

"Are you sure you're not going to be bored here all night while I'm gone?" I asked. Via had insisted on hanging out in my room while I was out with Phil and then sleeping over afterwards instead of just coming back later.

"I'll be fine. You've got enough magazines in your room to keep me occupied for decades." The doorbell rang. "There's Phil. You'd better go."

I hopped down from the counter, and Via handed me my purse. "Thank you so much for everything," I said, hugging her. "You're the best."

"I know," Via teased. "Have a good time. And don't forget, I want every detail."

"You've got it. Every detail," I promised as I went down the stairs. "Bye, Vee!"

Phil was already standing in the front hall when I made it downstairs, chatting with my mom. There was another thing—I didn't have to worry about "embarrassing parent syndrome" (as Trent had put it) when the guy I was going on a date with was Phil. He already knew everything there was to know about me, and hadn't run screaming yet.

"Hey, Phil," I greeted him with a smile—an honestly genuine smile. "Are you ready to go?"

Phil nodded, and I said goodbye to my mom, and we were off. He held my hand as we started down the sidewalk.

"I know walking isn't as good as driving--" he began.

I interrupted him. "Better."

From that moment on, there wasn't a single gap in conversation. We talked and laughed all the way to the movies, and I knew I was right about this night being perfect.

Phil let me pick what we saw—Samurai Love You Too, of course—and I was more than happy to lean my head on his shoulder when he put his arm around my shoulder halfway through the movie. It all felt so comfortable, like, "why haven't we been doing this all along?"

We held hands the whole way home, and way too quickly our date had ended. Before I knew it, we stood together beneath my dim porch light, saying goodnight.

"Thanks for letting me pick the movie," I told him. "This date was so much better than the other one. When I was with Trent, the entire time I kept waiting for the date to be over so I could go be with you. But tonight, I already was."

Phil smiled. "Well, I'm glad you had fun," he said. "Because I did, too."

Neither of us said anything for a few seconds, and in the silence I discovered the biggest difference between tonight and the Friday before it. A week ago, I'd been standing in exactly this spot, worried that Trent might kiss me, and now, I was worried that Phil might not.

I shouldn't have been worried, though. Because just at that moment, Phil closed the foot of space between us and kissed me, wrapping his arms around me. This time, my eyes slid easily shut and I didn't ever want it to end.

But it did, as all good things must, leaving us both with ridiculously large smiles on our faces.

"Did that one count?"

"Oh, trust me," I told him as I leaned in for kiss number two. "It counted." 


End file.
